The Obama
administration applauded itself for killing the Monroe Doctrine.
But in truth, this foreign-policy pillar has helped America survive
-- and its death puts the nation itself at risk.

by Richard Palmer

The Monroe Doctrine is officially dead. This was the famous
promise that America would allow no European power to gain a foothold in North
or South America. The Obama administration has repeatedly repudiated it. As part
of the same trend, Cuba -- long shut out by America due to its communism and
flirtations with Russia -- is being welcomed back into the community of nations.

It’s a radical shift in American foreign policy. But more
than that, it displays a dangerous worldview held by America’s leaders. To
understand why, it is important to understand why the Monroe Doctrine was
established in the first place.

The policy was first established in 1823 by United States
President James Monroe in response to the concerns that Spain and France were
trying to reassert rule in independent parts of Latin America. “The American
continents…are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future
colonization by any European powers,” Monroe said. In 1984, Defense Secretary
Caspar Weinberger brought the spirit of the doctrine up to date, saying “there
should be no interference, no sponsorship of any kind of military activity in
this hemisphere by countries in other hemispheres.”

Since shortly after the founding of the United States, it has
been arguably the most important pillar of American foreign policy.

In 2013, Secretary of State John Kerry officially proclaimed,
“The era of the Monroe Doctrine is over.” This statement to the Organization of
American States was a historic proclamation -- but what he said next was perhaps
more surprising: “That’s worth applauding,” he said. “That’s not a bad thing.”

More recently, U.S. President Barack Obama confirmed its
death. Note the way he expressed it, in a meeting with civil society leaders
from across Latin America in Panama on April 10: “The days in which our agenda
in this hemisphere so often presumed that the United States could meddle with
impunity, those days are past.” He too was applauded.

These men speak as though the Monroe Doctrine was evil -- an
excuse for an imperialist (and probably racist) America to “meddle” in the
affairs of other nations just to get its own way. Is that the truth? What are
the real fruits of the Monroe Doctrine?

For starters, without this doctrine, the U.S. as we know it
would not exist today.

Europe has been engulfed in huge and destructive wars
throughout America’s history. Yet these wars have not spread to mainland
America. Why? It’s not for a lack of desire. It is because it is incredibly
difficult to fight a war over 3,000 miles of ocean -- as the British discovered
in the late 1770s.

But during that time, there have been repeated schemes to
attack the U.S. And they all revolve around getting a foothold in the Americas.
Here is a brief history of some attempts to attack America.

Napoleon

“Napoleon’s ambition was to build a great colonial empire,”
wrote historian Ralph Korngold. “The keystone of that empire was of course to be
the incomparable colony of St. Domingue, from which France is said to have
derived more profit than all other nations derived from their combined colonies
in Asia, Africa and America.”

To that end, Napoleon reacquired the vast French colony of
Louisiana from Spain. Then he sent his brother-in-law, Gen. Charles Leclerc,
with what Korngold called “the most powerful army that had ever crossed the
Atlantic” to retake St. Domingue, on the island of Hispaniola, after the French
authorities had been defeated by a slave rebellion. (Today, the island is split
between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.)

Napoleon believed Leclerc would reconquer St. Domingue in six
weeks. He gave Leclerc secret orders to take most of his force to New Orleans
once the victory in St. Domingue was complete.

There was no Monroe Doctrine in those days. Instead, it was
stubborn resistance, disease and British naval power that defeated Leclerc in
St. Domingue. Deprived of the “keystone” to his American empire, Napoleon
realized he could not succeed. He cut his losses and sold Louisiana to America.

We cannot know now how much America would have occupied
Napoleon’s attention had he been successful in Haiti. But James Leyburn wrote in
his book Haitian People, “Certain historians are of the opinion that if Napoleon
had been successful in the reconquest of St. Domingue, he would have turned his
attention to America rather than to Europe, for he had great colonial schemes.”

We can only speculate about what-ifs. But without Leclerc’s
defeat, it is easy to imagine a world in which the United States does not exist,
and is instead a French-speaking nation in the south and an English-speaking one
in the north. It would be immeasurably weaker than the America we see today, and
it may have spent the last 200 years riven by bloody conflicts, just like
Europe.

Kaiser Wilhelm

Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany was obsessed by empire. By the
end of the 19th century, all the other European powers had an empire, and he
wanted one for Germany too.

One of his top plans was almost identical to Napoleon’s:
establish a commercial empire in Latin America. Like Napoleon, Kaiser and the
German war planners felt the key to accomplish this was a major Caribbean base
-- either Cuba or Puerto Rico.

The expansion of American naval power under President
Theodore Roosevelt, as well as Roosevelt’s determination to enforce the Monroe
Doctrine, prevented this German empire from materializing in the Western
Hemisphere.

The United States came within hours of war with Germany in
the winter of 1902 after Germany attacked Venezuela -- ostensibly to recover
unpaid debts, but with plans to establish a military base there.

President Roosevelt ordered America’s most distinguished --
and anti-German -- military leader, Adm. George Dewey, to exercise his fleet in
the region and to prepare to sail to war at an hour’s notice.

Germany backed down. Although the German Navy almost
certainly could have beaten America’s Atlantic fleet, it was dispersed and
unprepared for war. Germany didn’t invade Venezuela, and instead allowed America
to mediate the disagreement.

Was Roosevelt right to be so bellicose? In 2002, historians
discovered that as the Venezuelan crisis was unfolding, German strategists had
drawn up several plans for a surprise attack on the American Atlantic Coast.

One iteration of the plan used Puerto Rico as a staging post.

Ultimately, German strategists concluded that they would not
win a war against America under Roosevelt, so they never put their plans into
action.

What would have happened in 1902 without the Monroe Doctrine?
Quite probably the gradual expansion of German colonies across South and Central
America, with a major German naval presence in the Caribbean.

Once World War I broke out a few years later, America would
have been drawn much more deeply into the maelstrom that engulfed Europe.

Kaiser Wilhelm Again

Later, the Kaiser schemed not to invade America, but to tie
America’s military down in its own neighborhood. This would have prevented the
United States from intervening in Europe.

Before and during World War I, Germany funded and trained
Mexican soldiers. It tried several times to incite a war between Mexico and the
U.S. It operated several spies and agents out of Mexico.

The most famous attempt came in January 1917. After hacking
German Embassy diplomatic cables, British intelligence officers discovered that
Germany was trying to persuade Mexico to attack America that year. Germany
promised Mexico “generous financial support” for conquering Texas, New Mexico
and Arizona. The infamous Zimmerman Telegram, as it became known, helped
convince America to join World War I.

Mexico was in the midst of a civil war at the time, so it was
in no position to attack the United States.

Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis proves that even in the modern world
of missiles and airplanes, a base in the Caribbean is still viewed as a huge
strategic asset for any American adversary. In fact, in the age of missiles, a
Caribbean base in enemy hands is far more dangerous for the United States.

Had Kaiser Wilhelm been able to launch an attack on the U.S.
from Puerto Rico, his plan was merely to conquer a city or naval base on the
West Coast and compel Washington to negotiate from a position of weakness. He
wanted to force America to allow Germany a permanent Latin American presence.
But today a nuclear missile launched from the Caribbean could wipe out a city in
an instant.

Here’s how a magazine editor-in-chief described what was at
stake in the Cuban Missile Crisis in his March 2015 article:

“The Soviets wanted to deploy and activate their missiles
in Cuba without America finding out. With supersonic nuclear missiles only
minutes away from America’s cities, THE SOVIETS COULD EVADE AMERICA’S
MISSILE WARNING SYSTEM AND LAUNCH A SURPRISE ATTACK. I BELIEVE THERE IS
AMPLE EVIDENCE THAT THE SOVIET LEADER NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV WOULD HAVE ATTEMPTED
TO DESTROY AMERICA AT THAT TIME. What if Khrushchev had achieved his secret
plan to surprise America? He would probably never have had a better
opportunity to conquer America -- and he knew it! After all, he did say that
the Soviets would ‘bury’ us. At the very least, the Soviet Union would have
had the U.S. at nuclear gunpoint. America’s foreign policy would have been
neutralized.

“However, something happened in Cuba. The Americans began
hearing reports that missiles were coming in. But they needed confirmation.
It was difficult to fly over Cuba, a hostile nation, without getting shot
down. But SOMEHOW, THE SOVIET PLAN GOT OUT OF PHASE. THE MISSILES ARRIVED
AND WERE OUT IN THE OPEN BEFORE THE ANTIAIRCRAFT BATTERIES WERE FULLY
OPERATIONAL. American spy planes spotted the missiles and brought home
photographic proof of Cuba’s nuclear buildup.

“The Cuban Missile Crisis turned out to be a victory for
America, a victory that could have easily been a crushing defeat. But it
proved how strategic the Cuban islands are for anyone who wants to harm the
U.S. With modern weapons, how easily and quickly an enemy force can strike
America’s military and its cities.”

Rejecting the Facts of History

From the time of conquistadors and pirates, a major base in
the Caribbean has been the key to controlling the trade all around North
America. Caribbean bases enabled Britain to siphon off huge amounts of wealth
from the Spanish Empire. It’s no coincidence that the region became the target
of both the French and the Germans when they were looking to kick-start their
empires too.

Yet now the region seems set to be neglected -- at least by
America.

The Obama administration talked as if the Monroe Doctrine was
a waste of time or an act of imperialistic hubris. It hated the meager
mechanisms America had in place to try to bring about a friendly regime in Cuba.

America’s leaders today behave as though major wars are a
thing of the past. They presume that no one would ever seek to attack the U.S.,
and therefore, defending America by keeping potential enemies out of its
neighborhood isn’t important.

That view rejects the facts of history. This is the real
world. Nations are jealous of rich and powerful rivals; they look for weaknesses
to bring them down. There are foreign powers that want to harm the United
States. They will use Latin America to do so if they can.

The wishful thinking that sees the world full of happy
friends goes far beyond America’s rulers. It is the attitude of America as a
whole. How much press coverage have you seen on this matter? It isn’t just the
leaders who are unconcerned -- the media don’t even consider it news because
their readers probably wouldn’t care.

The United States is living in a make-believe world. The
Monroe Doctrine was designed to protect the United States from foreign powers.
It has been rejected because Washington apparently no longer believes there is
anything to be protected from.

History is full of examples where people thought major-power
wars were over -- that humanity had progressed into an age of relative peace.
This thinking was prevalent before the Napoleonic wars. And World War I. And
World War II.

Biblical prophecy warns that such fantasies will again
prevail in the very end time (e.g. Amos 6:3-6; Luke 17:26-30).

Besieged

America’s geography -- protected from the world’s major
powers by thousands of miles of ocean -- is a blessing from God. In rejecting
the Monroe Doctrine, America is largely negating that blessing.

Dozens of biblical prophecies promise blessings to Israel for
obedience to God’s laws, and warn of curses for disobedience. These apply most
of all to the end-time descendants of the ancient nation of Israel, of whom the
United States is chief.

Dozens of prophecies describe foreign attack and invasion on
American soil! It is difficult for most Americans to imagine because of the
extraordinary security the nation has enjoyed for generations, but this is
coming!

Latin America is certain to be a staging ground for some of
these attacks. The plans for such invasions that have been thwarted in the past
will be carried out.

One specific prophecy to consider in this context can be
found in Deuteronomy 28. Among the punishments upon modern-day America that this
chapter lists for rebellion against God, verse 52 warns that foreign nations
“shall BESIEGE thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down,
wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in
all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.”

These “gates” include the vital sea-lanes by which America
trades with other nations and imports goods that its people rely on every day.
This is a specific prophecy that these sea-lanes will be cut off by foreign
powers!

That scenario simply couldn’t happen without Latin America:
It will entail an enemy or alliance of enemies closing the Panama Canal to
American traffic and gaining naval and aerial superiority in the Caribbean.

The rest of the world sees a still-rich America becoming
weaker and more inward-looking. The temptation and opportunity to undermine the
nation has never been stronger.

If America were concerned about its future, it wouldn’t
reject the Monroe Doctrine, but would rather increase its vigilance all the
more. The consequences for this error are going to prove tragic.

Hope of Israel Ministries
-- Preparing the Way for the Return of YEHOVAH God and His Messiah!